What Are The Gobshites Saying These Days?

Welcome back to our weekly survey of the state of Our National Dialogue which, of course, is what Purcell would have come up with had he composed "He Who Drinks Is Immortal And On Set."

Before moving on to what got bandied about on the electric teevee machine, let us pause and marvel at the fact that Maureen Dowd has discovered once again the keys to her personal Wayback Machine.

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If Americans are worried about money in politics, there is no larger concern than the Clintons, who are cosseted in a world where rich people endlessly scratch the backs of rich people.

This may be the single stupidest sentence in the history of The New York Times. I am worried about money and politics. You are worried about money in politics. People in North Carolina and Wisconsinare worried about money in politics. Bill Moyers is damn sure worried about money in politics. Where on your list of people that prompt your concern about money in politics do the Clintons rank? And what is the first piece of evidence MoDo cites for her assertion -- the Clintons and their connections to...Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin. Which is not about money at all, but about the old nudge-nudge, wink-wink. I mean, honestly, the Lincoln Bedroom again? Again, call me Kreskin, motherfkers.

After a segment in which everybody admitted that nobody knows what in hell to do about Egypt -- Kelly Ayotte wants the president to lead "more strongly," but is unclear who he should lead, and how, and where he should lead it -- it becames let's-talk-about-race-but-not-really day on Disco Dave's Disco Dance Party. Ray Kelly came on to talk about stop-and-frisk, which is not About Race because nothing ever is About Race. And later, Rich Lowry, editor of the longtime white-supremacist journal National Review, stopped by the defend the new voter restrictions, which also are not About Race because nothing ever is About Race.

(One question that immediately arose is why Kelly got to be on the set alone, pre-taped on Friday, rather than being placed there live with folks like Ben Jealous, and Trayvon Martin's parents, who were brought out after him. Seems like having them all on together would have made for a better -- and certainly a livelier -- debate.)

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Because this is not About Race, Kelly, who wants to have his hands on the entire Homeland Security apparatus, is very sad that a judge is going to be responsible for people killing each other.

Well, I think no question about it, violent crime will go up. And again, this is not a program. This is something that's integral to policing. This happens throughout America in any police jurisdiction. You have to do it. Officers have to have the right of inquiry if they see some suspicious behavior. So, I can assure you, this is not just a New York City issue; it's an issue throughout America. And this case has to be appealed, in my judgment, because it will be taken as a template and have significant impact in policing throughout America.

The phrase "reasonable suspicion" curiously has replaced the more useful "furtive movements" in our discussion here. But then Lowry, noted civil-rights advocate, came on to talk about voter-suppression and why it doesn't exist because it's popular.

And these voter ID laws, depending on how-- how you count, about 30 states have them. They're popular across the board. The Washington Post poll not too long ago said more than 60 percent of blacks and Latinos support these laws. They've been upheld by the Supreme Court six to three by a very liberal justice so I think the case against them is extremely weak and inherently demagogic.

Of course, Lowry is playing a little monkey-mischief here. Does he believe that more than 60 percent of minority voters support, say, an end to early voting, souls-to-the-polls, and same-day registration when he talks about the popularity of "these laws"? Of course, not. Voter ID, which is bad enough, polls well because propaganda sometimes works. But to define what's going on in the states as "voter-ID laws," and to intimate that Mrs. Clinton was talking solely about that, is rather limiting the discussion. But it's not About Race, so it shouldn't really matter. Lowry spoke warmly about Dr. King and the March On Washington, thereby putting NR firmly in the year 1963 as regards to racial equality. Well done!

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Nobody knew what the fk to do about Egypt over at This Week With The Clinton Guy Shocked By Blowjobs, although Senator Bob Corker is quite worried about a war between Egypt and Tennessee. Or about a primary challenge. It's hard to say.

The fact is that we need to be looking at what is in our national interest. And is it in our national interest to have jihadis in northeastern Sinai that maybe threaten the security of Tennesseans and Americans? Is it in our national interest when we have 4.5 percent of the population and 22 percent of the world's economic output to ensure that we have priority passage in the Suez Canal and that we continue to have good jobs for Tennesseans and Americans.

I look forward to the day when Tennesseans and Americans can sit together at the table of brotherhood. I surely do.

But things didn't get really rolling until Bill (Wrong) Kristol came on to argue that what the Republicans really should do in 2016 is run on those immensely popular agendas being pushed through state legislatures around the country, especially on voting rights and government's role in the regulation of ladyparts.

"I support most of those efforts [in North Carolina], I'm not a big fan of a lot of early voting, I think it's better to have the election as much as you can on one day...I think same-day registration is an invitation to fraud and abuse. (Ed. Note -- Which, by and large, doesn't exist.) I mean the media goes around, they don't even know what happened in North Carolina. It just sounds like a lot of right-wing stuff. Let's go through, though, the school choice agenda in North Carolina, restricting abortion after five months to cases of medical necessity. I think an awful lot of Americans would support that agenda...I think if Republicans could go into 2016 defending the agenda they've passed in various states, where the citizens of those states seem pretty happy, incidentally, with most of those Republican governors, I think they'll be in pretty good shape."

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Right, Bill, the citizens of most of those states are obviously thrilled with their Republican governors. This is especially true of Pat McCrory in North Carolina. If Bill Kristol told me the sun rose in the East this morning, I'd need two more sources.

So if history is any guide, clearly, those lives saved are largely the lives of-- of people of color. And we're saving lives, that's what we're engaged in. We just had a-- Center for Disease Control study come out that said New York City has the lowest ratio of teenagers carrying guns than any city in-- in America.

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